{"id":6157,"date":"2010-04-24T14:30:54","date_gmt":"2010-04-24T14:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2010\/04\/church-names-what-do-you-think.html"},"modified":"2010-04-24T14:30:54","modified_gmt":"2010-04-24T14:30:54","slug":"church-names-what-do-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/04\/church-names-what-do-you-think.html","title":{"rendered":"Church Names: What do you think?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Church names are getting more and more creative, and one has to wonder when the trend will reverse and we’ll go back to “The Church in Colosse.” Anyway, this from Out of Ur blog<\/b><\/a> and I clipped the top thirteen … it goes to over 100 creative names. [By the way, one denomination gave itself a creative name so it’s not just local churches.]<\/p>\n

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What do you think of this trend? Any experience with it?<\/b><\/p>\n
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But I’ve got another question: Who has a creative name for a local church?<\/b><\/p>\n
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Have you noticed that church names are getting increasingly strange? Our friend Dennis Baker has. He’s been keeping a list of church names in order to document how far we’ve come from the days of “First Presbyterian” and “Springfield Baptist.” He sent us the following list of 129 church names. I’ve added my reactions in parentheses.<\/p>\n

1.\tResonate 
2.\tRevolution (Where only senior pastors get beheaded.)
3.\tRadiance (Where the female vocalists all glitter like Mariah Carey.)
4.\tElevation (U2 songs every bloody Sunday.) 
5.\tRestoration 
6.\tRenovation (You can do it! God can help.)
7.\tMosaic 
8.\tenCompass (Wii th-|-nk [outside] the box. We R crAtiVe.)
9.\tEpiphany Station (Next stop, Conjunction Junction!)
10.\tSoma (Our pastor knows Greek.)
11.\tSanctuary 
12.\tRock Harbor (If your life hasn’t run aground yet, we can help.)
13.\tJourney (“Don’t Stop Believing” is our theme song.)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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